Return to Glory?

By: Jamey Codding (jameycodding@bullz-eye.com)

07/30/2000

Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home

Think back to the end of the 1998 football season. Running backs Terrell Davis, Fred Taylor and Jamal Anderson had just run over their competition for a combined 5,077 yards on 1,066 carries, an average of 4.76 yards per carry. In those 47 games, the three backs totaled 49 rushing touchdowns. Davis, the Broncos' All-World back and the man everyone calls TD for more than one reason, became only the fourth runner in NFL history to top 2,000 yards in one season (2,008); Taylor, a rookie in 1998, amassed over 1,200 yards and rumbled for 14 touchdowns; Anderson ran for 1,846 yards on an NFL-record 410 carries. Their respective teams, the Broncos, Jaguars and Falcons (insert "Wizard of Oz" joke here), each qualified for the playoffs, with the Broncos ending a championship season by beating the Falcons in the Super Bowl. Davis and Anderson were both 27, Taylor 23. With those relatively young legs combined with the gaudy numbers they recorded, the future was bright for these three running backs and their teams.

Now, training camps for the 2000 season have opened and I bet we all know how Davis, Taylor and Anderson followed up their spectacular seasons last year:

Not exactly the numbers everyone expected. In a truly ironic twist of fate, the two starting running backs from 1998's Super Bowl teams both had season-ending ACL injuries; Davis tore up his knee making a tackle after a Broncos' interception and Anderson went down without even being hit. And while Taylor still averaged 4.6 yards per carry, a recurring hamstring injury kept the back out of six games and severely limited his production.

The impact of these injuries wasn't surprising: The Broncos and Falcons both failed to even qualify for the playoffs, sporting a combined 11-21 record. Jacksonville lost to the eventual Super Bowl runner-up Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship game, but the bulk of the running throughout the regular season was handled by Taylor's backup (and new Lions starting running back), James Stewart.

What should we expect this year? Each player seems fully recovered from last year's problems (although the injuries Davis and Anderson sustained were much more serious than Taylor's), meaning each should see the ball at least 250 times this year. While Olandis Gary, entering his second season, proved to be an explosive runner as Davis' replacement last year (1,159 yards, 7 TD), head coach Mike Shannahan knows he needs TD to return to form if he wants another shot at a ring, especially with the erratic Brian Griese behind center. As for the Falcons, they rely more heavily on Anderson than the Broncos do on Davis, considering Atlanta's two leading rushers last season, Ken Oxendine and Byron Hanspard, ran for 835 yards. Combined. And Taylor, with his healthy, powerful legs supporting him and that sturdy Jaguars offensive line surrounding him, he should compete for the rushing yardage and touchdown titles in 2000.

But the question most fans will have, especially those in Atlanta, Denver and Jacksonville, is: Will the healthy return of the three running backs propel the Falcons and Broncos back into the playoffs, and the Jags to that elusive Super Bowl ring? Who knows, but it can't hurt. 

Two other NFC teams swallowed some key injuries on their way to disappointing finishes in 1998. The Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals had their starting quarterbacks suffer thumb injuries last year that destroyed their preseason playoff hopes. The Cards' Jake Plummer dislocated his thumb and also fractured his ring finger, injuries that limited him to only 12 games. Coming off a promising 1998 in which he threw for over 3,700 yards and 17 touchdowns, to say Plummer's 1999 numbers (2,111 yards, 9 TD, 24 INT) were disappointing may be the understatement of the season. 

But the thumb and finger are now healed, and Jake the Snake is one year older and, presumably, one year wiser. Can the Cards return to the playoffs in 2000? Drafting Virginia running back Thomas Jones to replace Adrian Murrell certainly should help, but only Plummer returning to the days when everyone compared him to a young Joe Montana can spark this team's success.

Mr. Green Bay himself, Brett Favre, suffered miserably through his own thumb injury that forced him into throwing more interceptions than touchdowns last year (23 INT, 22 TD), the first time in five seasons he failed to top 30 touchdown strikes. He's healthy now, and it's hard to sell that golden slingshot of his short, but since Mike Holmgren left for Seattle, the Pack haven't been right. Dorsey Levens has been unspectacular, Antonio Freeman hasn't taken that final step to greatness and the defense has fallen off a bit. Still, having a healthy Favre calling the shots on the field may help Green Bay regain some of the past glory. New Head Coach Mike Sherman just needs to remind his players that buying alcohol for after-prom parties and "hanging out" with 17-year-old girls just isn't a good way to prolong their professional football careers. There has to be someone out there he could use as an example... .

In the Bullz-eye:
The Boston Red Sox. With their second-best hitter, Carl Everett, serving his 10-game suspension as a result of the "head-butting" incident with umpire Ron Kulpa, Boston faces a tight pennant race without its home run and RBI leader. While the Sox sit three games out of first in the AL East and two games behind Oakland in the wildcard race as of Wednesday, Darren Lewis and Bernard Gilkey must try to replace Everett's bat in the lineup. In other words, Nomar Garciaparra, Troy O'Leary and Jason Varitek need to turn it up another notch which, for Garciaparra, seems nearly impossible: he's currently hovering around the .400 mark.